Storage recomendations...

[myth]

I have reached and maxed out my systems storage space! Both in SATA and IDE drives! I have 2 raptors, 2 sata 160 gig seagates, 2 IDE 200 gig seagates... I have 39 some gigs left for my data storage! I have decided its time to go external with either USB of firewire... My question is how fast are these things? I am asuming there is greater latency betwen external and internal via IDE... Also will I be able to sustain 45 - 60 megs transfer rates?

I am concernd because the drive will be holding all my CD and DVD image files... Not to mention alot of high bitrate mpegs (10 megs a second bit rate) Does anyone have any recomendations on an encloser or HDD drives?

[unrealrocks]

I run 7 HDDs in my main machine, if you just need more storage, add a RAID or SATA PCI card.

Your bang on with the USB2 HDDs - they are fast but no where near the speed of internal drives.

[charltonfan1]

I run 7 HDDs in my main machine, if you just need more storage, add a RAID or SATA PCI card.

Thats what id recommend too

[LeeumH]

Can i ask how you've filled all that space

[wutske]

I'd go for the firewire800, it's a lot faster then USB2.0 and consumes less cpu power.

[Furton]

Would it not be easier to upgrade your small hard drives to 250GB ones?

[Jiff Lemon]

Get one of these?

[nvening]

Lacie make a 800Gb one I think. My Iomega is good but it makes some weird noise sometimes.

[arthurleung]

USB2.0 external harddrives usually go up to 35MB/s, Firewire 400 depends on chipset, highest I saw on mine one is 33MB/s. Firewire 800 is faster but those enclosures are much more expensive.

If you want to put it internally (if your case have space), you can get an IDE card (Mostly 2 ports = 4 devices max) or a SATA card (Standard 2 ports = 2 devices, some with 4 ports = 4 devices, or you could go even higher with 8 ports+ at much higher price.) Cheap 4 ports or lower cards should cost no more than 40 quids. Those with hardware raid function could go 10 times more expensive.

You could also combine both solutions by using external sata. Icybox has a version which supports USB2 or eSATA. You could get a 4 port cheapo card and some internal to external sata adapter then connect to external enclosure. That way you don't need to worry about space inside your case, while having full performance of your harddrive.

If you planning to add 1 or 2 disks only, external boxes will be cheaper.

[Butcher]

Or you could get external SCSI, but that's not a cheap option.

[rajagra]

Or you could get external SCSI, but that's not a cheap option.

Not necessarily. If you can get a reasonably priced SCSI card and external SCSI box (probably from the U.S.) you can buy 15Krpm Ultra 320 disks off eBay for a lot less than Raptors.

EDIT> Ignore that. The external SCSI boxes are expensive. But SCSI disks can be bought cheaply.